Instead, Mr Marr claims in his book The Diamond Queen, it is more likely that he would take the title of Regent Prince.

He would then manage the Queen’s engagements and read the daily red box of government papers which is only one aspect of her work that goes largely unseen.

It is understood that giving the Prince this role would require an updating of the Regency Act, which was last revised in 1953.

However, it also discloses that the Prince, who is 62, has private doubts about whether he might outlive the Queen to become King Charles III.

Mr Marr has spent much of the last two years following the Queen on foreign trips and in her official duties around Britain.

He is also working on three television programmes for next June’s Diamond Jubilee.

On perhaps the most striking claims, Mr Marr wrote: “Prince Charles long ago distanced himself, physically and emotionally, from the Queen’s court.

“His succession would be followed by a dramatic clearing out of the current Buckingham Palace staff and the arrival of his own team.

“One of the more dramatic ideas that has been discussed is for the royal family in his reign to leave Buckingham Palace entirely, leaving it as a kind of grand official government hotel and centre for events.

“The king would base himself not in London but at Windsor Castle.”

A source told him: “I wouldn't actually rule [abdication] out, at the end of the day. If she got to a point where she was very old and very tired it could come to be the sensible view. A lot depends on the public.”

The Queen remains in rude health and maintains a timetable of official visits which would exhaust a younger person.

Last month, the Duke of Cambridge said he had regularly tried to persuade the Queen to slow her demanding schedule of official duties but said she “won’t have anything of it”, adding that she fully intended to continue well beyond the jubilee.

The Queen retains her sharp, inquiring mind and is a close analyst of the issues of the day.

Mr Marr’s sources told him she was well-informed about Westminster gossip and particularly knowledgeable about military matters.

One senior official told him: “She’s make a terrific journalist.”

A spokesman for Clarence House denied there were any plans for an abdication or for a move away from Buckingham Palace.

He said: “There have been no meetings here or any plans made about such future arrangements.”

Officials at the palace said that the only plan in place for the Queen’s death was a 10-day emergency response to oversee the monarchy’s immediate transition.

The Prince of Wales became heir to the throne at the age of three his grandfather, George VI, died in 1952.

He became the longest serving heir in April this year.

Should the Queen remain on the throne until September 2015, she will become the longest reigning monarch in British history, exceeding that of Queen Victoria.

The Diamond Jubilee on June 2 will start a special four-day bank holiday weekend.

The late May bank holiday will move to Monday 4 June while the Government has created an extra “nationwide celebration” bank holiday on Tuesday 5 June.

A series of grand events are also being organised, including, on June 3, the largest river pageant since the reign of Charles II in which the Queen will travel in a Royal Barge leading a flotilla of more than 1,000 boats down the Thames.

The Diamond Queen : Elizabeth II and Her People will be published by Macmillan on October 27.